Last year, it was a photo finish. A bill to stop
paying for logging roads on national forests fell two votes shy of
making it through the House of
Representatives.
This year, Reps. Joe Kennedy,
D-Mass., and John Porter, R-Ill., want to see if they can push the
measure over the top. A letter they wrote to Appropriations
Subcommittee Chairman Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, proposes ending all
funding for new roads in national forests. Kennedy, Porter and many
environmentalists hope it will become an amendment to the 1998
appropriations bill for the Department of the Interior. A vote on
the bill is expected this month.
“We do think
we’re going to win this one,” says Porter press secretary Dave
Kohn. Not only is there stronger support in the House this year, he
says, but more members are ready to make serious budget
cuts.
Funding for the Forest Service usually
hovers around $3 billion, $74 million of which went last year
toward building new logging roads. Under the proposed amendment,
timber companies would have to pay for the roads themselves, an
expensive change that would cripple the industry, its supporters
say.
To comment on the proposal, call Rep. Ralph
Regula’s office at 202/225-3081. – Emily
Miller
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The roads less funded.
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